SMG65 Posted 6 January , 2020 Share Posted 6 January , 2020 I'm giving a talk on Thursday at Durham WFA. The talk is about the battles of La Bassee, Armentieres and Messines in 1914. About two months I found a great quote about the BEF at the end of 1914 and used a line of it for my title - 'Little of that Seed Remained'. Now I'm putting the finishing touches to my talk and I can't find the quote and can't remember what book it is in (I have over 600 Great War Books). Can anybody help? Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 6 January , 2020 Share Posted 6 January , 2020 Not heard or seen that quote, but, equally, I must say clever but something of an overstatement in factual terms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner Hall Posted 7 January , 2020 Share Posted 7 January , 2020 Seems to me that it may possibly refer to a passage in Ecclesiasticus Chapter 44, Verses 7–14 With their seed shall continually remain a good inheritance, and their children are within the covenant. Their seed standeth fast, and their children for their sakes. Their seed shall remain for ever, and their glory shall not be blotted out. Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore. The final line is of course more widly used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
593jones Posted 8 January , 2020 Share Posted 8 January , 2020 Tim Carew did use the phrase in his book 'The Vanished Army', it is at the end of the book and is as follows: "As the weary 'Contemptibles' staggered into their billets, contingents from Australia, Canada, Newfoundland and South Africa were disembarking at Plymouth, Liverpool and Southampton. And in England Kitchener's New Armies - they had been mastering the intricacies of forming fours at the time of Mons and Le Cateau - were getting ready to take their place in the firing line. They were all coming to nourish the seed sown by the original 'Contemptibles': the cheering, laughing, hard-case regular soldiers who embarked for France in August. Little of that seed remained. But what there was of it was very, very good." A book I've always enjoyed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 8 January , 2020 Share Posted 8 January , 2020 Well done 593. I am reminded of the introductory passage in Alan Clark’s ‘The Donkeys’ (1961): ”This is the story of the destruction of an army - the old professional army of the United Kingdom that always won the last battle, whose regiments had fought at Quebec, Corunna, in the Indies, were trained in musketry at Hythe, drilled on the parched earth of Chuddapore, and were machine-gunned, gassed and finally buried in 1915.” He had a nice turn of phrase, did Alan Clark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 8 January , 2020 Share Posted 8 January , 2020 (edited) Shame that the man's grasp of historical reality was not matched by what you consider his nice turn of phrase! Edited 8 January , 2020 by David Filsell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
593jones Posted 8 January , 2020 Share Posted 8 January , 2020 I have to admit I've never read 'The Donkeys', I've heard too much about Clark's shortcomings as a historian to want to bother, but I do have to admit that, as Uncle George says, he had a nice turn of phrase. It appears that he, like Tim Carew and, latterly, Richard Holmes, had a great affection and respect for the British Army. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 9 January , 2020 Share Posted 9 January , 2020 Tim Carew is dodgy too. He give no notes or references (he was writing his BEF books before war diaries were viewable). In one of his books he used 'quotations' from a soldier which I found were taken from a radio play script - it rather coloured my view about the accuracy of his work as reference. I swiftly sold my copies of his books Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
593jones Posted 10 January , 2020 Share Posted 10 January , 2020 Oh, I know that Tim Carew is not to be relied for accuracy, and I've always taken his writings with a pinch (or more) of salt. I remember he has a comment on the First Battle of Ypres in 'The Vanished Army' being made by a private, and uses the same quote in 'Wipers' being made by a senior officer. For all his faults, though, I still enjoy reading his books, including 'The Longest Retreat' and 'Korea - Commonwealth at War' which are probably just as unreliable but a good read! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 10 January , 2020 Share Posted 10 January , 2020 (edited) Hard to enjoy work by a man who, at the very best, was casual and dushonest at his worst. Certainly those who have 'borrowed' from his works, and there a number, have been misled. Edited 11 January , 2020 by David Filsell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMG65 Posted 17 January , 2020 Author Share Posted 17 January , 2020 Thank you for your help and comments. I now know why I couldn't find the quote - I don't have the book. It was donated to our WFA Branch (I'm Cleveland Branch Chairman) as a raffle prize, so is in a box in my attic. I always check over donated raffle books and saw the quote. The only Tim Carew book I have is 'How The Regiments Got Their Nicknames' I was advised 25 years ago to treat his books as entertainment more than factual. Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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